woman grabs some of the last boxes of Twinkies on display at a Jewel-Osco grocery store in Chicago on Dec. 11, 2012. Eleven companies have submitted bids to acquire the Hostess cake brands, which include Twinkies, out of the bankruptcy process, according to court documents filed this month.

By Peter Whoriskey, Washington Post

Posted Jan. 24, 2013, at 8:23 p.m.

The last Twinkies rolled out of Hostess factories in November. But the iconic brand appears to be making a comeback.

Eleven companies have submitted bids to acquire the Hostess cake brands, which include Twinkies, out of the bankruptcy process, according to court documents filed this month. The number of bidders indicates a robust interest in reviving the snacks.

“Somebody’s going to make Twinkies — that’s not a concern,” according to a source close to the negotiations. “The question is who and how.”

A winner could be announced as early as next week, although the process could drag on in bankruptcy court in New York much longer.

The announcement set off a wave of nostalgia for the tubular yellow-cake treats and propelled the sales of Twinkies, with consumers emptying shelves and scavengers seeking to sell them for hundreds of dollars on eBay.

Reportedly among the leading bidders is C. Dean Metropoulos and Co., a private equity firm that also owns Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Separately, Hostess is also selling off its bread business, including Nature’s Pride and Wonder, which attracted 13 bidders.

Flowers Foods, the owner of LePage Bakeries in Auburn, Maine, earlier this month signed an asset-purchase agreement with Hostess to buy the latter’s Wonder, Nature’s Pride, Merita, Home Pride and Butternut bread brands; 20 bakeries, including the one in Biddeford; and approximately 38 depots for $360 million. The agreement is not binding, and Flowers could still be outbid at the auction, a Flowers spokesman told the Bangor Daily News.

The Hostess cake business — also including Donettes, Ding Dongs and Ho Hos — had nearly $1 billion in sales last year, according to figures from SymphonyIRI Infoscan, which does not include sales at Wal-Marts.

And though Twinkies have dominated coverage of the company’s demise, Hostess actually sold many more donuts and cupcakes. Twinkies sales amounted to $73.7 million, according to the figures.

The bakeries where the cakes are made are likely to be acquired by the bidders, a source said, because there is a shortage of such facilities. Twinkies were baked at Hostess plants in Columbus, Ga.; Emporia, Kan.; Ogden, Utah; Schiller Park, Ill.; Seattle; and Wayne, N.J.

But the return of Twinkies and other brands does not mean the company’s former employees will regain their jobs.

Hostess’s bankruptcy was precipitated, according to the company, by the union refusing wage and benefit concessions that management had demanded. However, a union representative said this week that for any of the bidders, the former workers offer the best chance of restarting operations swiftly.

“The Bakers look forward to the next phase for these iconic brands that past generations have grown up with – as a fourth generation baker, believe me I know,” David Durkee, president of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, said in a statement. “While we don’t know what the outcome will be of either the auction process or who will be hired to work in the plants, what we do know is that our members provide new owners the best chance of success in a seamless revival of operations.”